Europe

Raisin, the Paypal-backed savings deposit marketplace that lets you shop for a better interest rate across Europe, has launched a dedicated U.K. site, meaning that savers can now access deposit accounts in Sterling. The first partner bank on the British version of the platform is BACB, which is offering a range of fixed term savings

Amazon continues to tap into the developer community to expand the ubiquity of its Alexa voice-based assistant, and it’s taking the strategy international. Today the company opened applications for the Alexa Accelerator, the program for startups building solutions and services for voice-based assistants, which Amazon runs in conjunction with Techstars. Most notably, as part of

Europe-based cloud storage startup Tresorit, which mainly focuses on selling to small to medium size businesses, has added a file restore feature to its e2e encrypted cloud storage platform. It’s touting this as a helpful feature if you’re trying to recover from a ransomware attack. Or, more prosaically, if you’ve accidentally deleted something. Here’s a GIF

Tandem, the U.K. challenger bank that recently acquired the banking arm of the famous Harrods department store partly in order to get its banking license back on track, has launched its first banking product: a credit card that offers cashback on every purchase and no exchange fees when spending abroad. The new card is designed

French startup Sqreen recently launched a Security Hub with dozens of plugins to put you in control of the security of your web app. In many ways, it feels like enabling tasks on popular automation service IFTTT. Sqreen participated in TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield and Y Combinator’s current batch. The vision of the product hasn’t changed.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the online estate agency market was a done deal in the U.K., evidenced by a plethora of proptech startups and more established companies that help you sell your home or help you list and manage it for rent. But apparently not, if one London startup and its new backers

French startup Assur.com lets you find and compare all sorts of insurance products without having to enter all your personal information. While insurance aggregators are nothing new, they usually ask you for your email address, phone number and more. And chances are those companies are going to spam you with offers. But Assur.com has a

If you need to make a 3D model of an object, there are plenty of ways to do so, but most of them are only automated to the extent that they know how to spin in circles around that object and put together a mesh. This new system from Fraunhofer does it more intelligently, getting

The ARCEP, France’s equivalent of the FCC in the U.S., wants to go beyond telecommunications companies. While many regulatory authorities have focused on carriers and internet service providers, the French authority thinks Google, Apple, Amazon and all the big tech companies also need their own version of net neutrality. The ARCEP just published a thorough

The UK government has directly accused Russia of being behind the so called NotPetya ransomware attack last year — which quickly spread around the globe, including affecting businesses in Spain, France and India, demanding payment in Bitcoin to unlock infected machines. The malware initially appeared targeted at Ukrainian networks. “We have entered a new era of

After London sent ripple’s of shock through Silicon Valley last year by denying Uber a renewal of its private hire vehicle license, the city’s transport regulator is doubling down on its scrutiny of the impact of app-based ride operators. Today it’s published a policy statement setting out its intentions for adopting transport regulations to fit the

CommonSense Robotics, an Israel-based startup developing AI and robotics tech to help online grocery retailers speed up fulfilment and delivery, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Playground Global, with participation from previous investors Aleph VC and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. It brings the company’s total funding to $26

Third time is a charm. Viva Technology (or “VivaTech” for short) hosted its kick-off press conference to present this year’s event. And this year is going to be quite special for TechCrunch as well because we’re hosting a Startup Battlefield Europe at VivaTech and a Hackathon. Hosted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the press conference

TechCrunch Startup Battlefield is headed to VivaTech in Paris on May 24th to find and feature the best early-stage startup across Europe! In partnership with VivaTech, Startup Battlefield Europe will feature startups from across continental Europe working on the cutting-edge technologies blooming this Spring. VivaTech is the perfect spot to host our Startup Battlefield Europe

A court in Germany has ruled that Facebook’s default privacy settings and some of its terms and conditions breached local laws. The Berlin court passed judgement late last month but the verdict was only made public this week. The legal challenge, which dates back to 2015, was filed by a local consumer rights association, the

The UK government’s pressure on tech giants to do more about online extremism just got weaponized. The Home Secretary has today announced a machine learning tool, developed with public money by a local AI firm, which the government says can automatically detect propaganda produced by the Islamic State terror group with “an extremely high degree

Starling, the U.K. challenger bank that offers a mobile-only current account, continues to execute on its marketplace banking strategy. Following the required regulatory approval, the Starling Marketplace is adding a number of financial services integrations, spanning pensions, savings, travel insurance and mortgage brokerage. Specifically, Starling is partnering with PensionBee, Wealthsimple, Kasko, and Habito, respectively. It

At first glance a CoinHive crypto miner being served by a website whose URL contains the string ‘ICO’ might not seem so strange. But when you know that ICO in this case stands for the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office — aka the national data protection and privacy watchdog, whose URL (https://ico.org.uk) predates both Bitcoin and

TechCrunch is bringing Disrupt back to Europe for the sixth time, and we’re delighted to announce that Berlin, the urban heartland of Europe’s startup scene, will once again be Disrupt’s host city in 2018. Save these Disrupt Berlin dates in your diary: 29-30 November 2018 If you ask, “Why Berlin?” the answer is simple. Not

Burrow, the U.K. startup founded by ex-VC Pradeep Raman and backed by Passion Capital, is shutting down its online mortgage brokerage service, TechCrunch has learned. The move is the result of a change in strategy as the nascent company pivots to a B2B model, offering software tools to lenders, mortgage networks and brokers. According to

Flux, the London fintech startup founded by former early employees at Revolut, has deepened its partnership with U.K. challenger bank Starling to add Flux-powered loyalty points to Starling’s mobile banking app. It builds on earlier Flux integration that sees Starling support item-level digital receipts powered by Flux and supported merchants (to date, this includes all

French startup Cityscoot announced a $50 million round of financing yesterday (€40 million). RATP Capital Innovation and Inventure Partners are leading the round, with existing investors Caisse des Dépôts and LeasePlan also participating. Cityscoot operates an electric scooter-sharing service in Paris and plans to expand to other cities in France and Europe. You can now

It’s been more than a year since the well-funded startup Cyanogen announced that it would shut down its mobile OS development, and since pivoted to self-driving technology. Yet we’re still seeing some fallout among the companies that had pinned their hopes on the original plans of that shooting star. Wileyfox, a smartphone maker that was one

The UK government has announced a package of labor market reforms to respond to changes in working patterns including those driven by the rise of gig economy platforms and apps like Uber and Deliveroo. It’s billing the move as an expansion of workers rights — saying “millions” of workers will get new day-one rights, as

There is a clutch of new VC funds launched in the US every year, and but when you look at the stats around new funds started by women they are pretty dismal. A cursory glance at the figures from last year reveals that out of 153 funds founded in the US last year, only four

Meet ProcessOut, a French startup that automatically routes transactions to the best payment provider. This way, big online services can start using multiple payment providers, pay fewer fees and reduce the number of declined transactions. The startup has just raised $1 million from various business angels, such as BlaBlaCar CTO Francis Nappez, former PayPal Director

The European Commission is holding a press conference later today to trumpet progress made on ending “unjustified geoblocking”, as it tells it, with the stated aim of greasing the wheels of pan-EU ecommerce in time for Christmas. Which, from a consumer point of view, sounds great. Unfortunately it’s not quite as great as it sounds.

Amazon has signed an undisclosed deal with the French tax authorities, Amazon told the AFP. From 2006 to 2010, Amazon operated in France using its subsidiary in Luxembourg. This way, the company could pay less taxes. But French authorities think French sales should be taxed in France. That’s why they were asking for $252 million

Yandex has added a native ad-blocking feature to its browser in Russia. The Russian search giant trailed the change to local press back in December, following new guidelines from the local branch of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) — which it helped develop. It says its aim is to enhance users’ browsing experience by blocking “intrusive

Infarm, a startup that has developed vertical farming tech for grocery stores, restaurants and local distribution centres to bring fresh and artisan produce much closer to the consumer, has raised $25 million in Series A funding. The round is led by London-based VC firm Balderton Capital, with participation from TriplePoint Capital, Mons Investments, and previous